A new century is bringing forth more calls to push to alternative energy sources. Oil, legislation, technology, global warming, and consumer awareness drives the demand.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Possible breakthrough for solar efficiencyMaterial grabs more sun TRN 042104:"The researchers were working on making a three-junction photovoltaic cell when they accidentally made a material that had a split bandgap. Once they realized the nature of the material, they reverse-engineered their inadvertent discovery to figure out how it happened.

The key turned out to be replacing some of the atoms of a material that is strongly electronegative with atoms of a material that is even more electronegative to create a highly mismatched alloy. The introduced atoms split the conduction band. "

The current cells, at best, will capture 25% of the sun's energy. This new material appears to have the potential for a 50% capture. The article says that it will take 3 years to see how well (or not) the new solar cell will work.